1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an opto-electronic sensor wherein at least one light-permeable electrically insulating layer is carried on a surface of a substrate made of doped semiconductor material. The insulating layer carries a number of electrodes arranged in a matrix of lines and columns, wherein at least one line is present with at least two electrodes. The electrodes of a respective line are interconnected with each other. A buried channel is present in the substrate below each column and doped oppositely to the doping of the substrate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Opto-electronic sensors of the type mentioned above are well known in the art. Such a sensor is described, for example, in the publication "A Three Terminal Charge Injection Device" by Paul Jespers and Jean Marie Millet in the 1975 IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference, Pages 28-29. In this article, a sensor is illustrated in a plan view in FIG. 5 on Page 29. The electrodes consist of polysilicon strips (Si gate strips) arranged line-by-line next to one another, and the buried channels (buried collector strips) extend transversely therebelow in the substrate. Each of the buried channels comprises an external terminal contact by way of which it is connected to ground by way of a resistance R (see FIG. 2). The mode of operation is such that, during the storage process, potential wells for the charge carriers produced by the incident light are produced below the electrodes, and that during the read out process, the charge carriers stored in these potential wells are received by the channels buried therebelow. The charged channel discharges via the resistance R. The output signal is taken off at the external terminal contact of the buried channel. The amplitude of the output signal is therefore low (smaller than one volt). Furthermore, this output signal is superimposed with timing pulses.